Oct 29th. Stirling Castle

Early in the morning we got on our way to Edinburgh with a stop at Stirling on the way. Stirling is a beautiful town complete with its own castle perched up on the hill, just like Dumbarton yesterday made from a volcano plug.

The views of surrounding hills were picture-perfect. The nearest featured a monument to William Wallace - a huge, lone-standing tower. The guy on the right is not it. We walked through town and returned back to the castle. As with most of other castles Mary of Scots was there too.




William Wallace looks
 nothing like Mel Gibson

In the last few centuries it was used as a military facility so other than the walls nothing remained of the prior splendor. It was restored, and walls were whitewashed and painted with some medieval designs but after seeing a few others with their décor intact this one was not as impressive inside. We did like the marvelous children workshops that showed how different paints were derived, medieval clothing, and jesters.


We were hoping that we would be able to work from a lovely medieval tavern in town. But when we checked in, they did not have Internet available any more so we transferred to our final destination. I rented an apartment for us in Edinburgh. It turned out to be nothing like it was on the pictures. It is a giant two bedroom apartment in an old building. Five minute walk away from the center.

But did I say it is giant? Ceilings alone must be 6 meters tall. Kids were afraid to go to Dima's room level reachable by a stone staircase. It is a bit like fishbowl though because it is on the ground floor. Unfortunately the Internet here is questionable as well. However home electrical appliances and shower facilities are much better than in England. Flushing the toilet is no longer an act of faith.

At night we got out for a short walk. Isabella fell asleep halfway through it so we called it a day.
 

Oct 28th. Glasgow, Dumbarton Castle, Loch Lomond and too much work

We met with the locals

Today we left our apartment at dawn to cram in a few hours of sightseeing prior to the start of the work day. We went Northwest to Loch Lomond. Loch Ness was the desired option but we were not ready for the ride and were not sure that the monster will show up promptly.

The roads are much nicer and wider than in the UK. Fall is in full swing and we enjoyed the views of foliage, hills and lovely lake on the way.

At Luss we got out and strolled through the picture perfect village filled with Chinese tourists. Stopped at a souvenir shop. The owner ran up to us and offered to try some fudge. Really warms your heart - both physically and spiritually :) We got some butter cookies there and instantly devoured them.

The final stop by the lake was at Tarbet. We visited the tea shop and had some coffees with hot egg and black pudding (a.k.a my favorite blood sausage) bugs.

On the way back we visited Dumbarton Castle. It will be one of the most memorable in our travels. The castle is perched high up on the rock that served as a plug for a volcano way way way back. It is also one of the oldest castles in Britain and like many other places was visited by Queen Mary of Scotts. The views were amazing and kids enjoyed visiting various parts of it.

Back home we jumped into work and emerged only for dinner at Insgram Wynd. Safe for the ambience, it is really four stars tops. Interesting dishes but lacking that final oomph.

Tomorrow we are relocating to our next point in Scotland - Edinburgh. We did not give this town its due and there are few nice places to visit here. Maybe we will come back at warmer and drier times :) 

Oct 27th. Glasgow

Today was a great day. Kids oblivious to the daylight savings time change woke us up at 6am. We fought them off with an iPad and got a few more minutes of sleep. But time is of the essence so by 8am we got dressed and ran out into the bitter cold, rain and wind to get some breakfast. The streets were empty but we found a little coffee shop just past the Merchant city. Remarkably they had Pasteles de Nata. How can you say "No" to this?

When we got back outside we decided to re-start. We ran back to the apartment and put on our warmest clothing. That made our walk substantially more comfortable. We wandered through the lovely center stopping to check out the third oldest subway in the world, one circular line, lovingly restored to complete newness. Had scones and clotted cream at Willow Tea Room and visited another Charles Renee Machintosh creation: the Lighthouse. Walked through the lovely center filled with truly magnificent red brick buildings. Went to Kelvingrove Art Gallery. It is a weird combination of taxidermied animals, mummies, paintings, kids' workshops. As much as Liverpool maritime museum was superbly organized this was not. I guess finding interesting random facts can be appealing too.

When we got our fill we grabbed a cab back to town to catch lunch. After much fruitless searching for a Scottish restaurant of the highest quality represented by 4.5 Tripadvisor stars settled on a Spanish Galician restaurant. It lived up to its reputation of bad service. I think part of the reason for that the misalignment of the expectations. The staff there expects you will understand and speak Spanish. You expect they will speak slow and humane enough version of Scottish for you to understand them. We decided not to risk it and pointed to a few tapas. They were excellent.

We dedicated the rest of the afternoon searching for the perfect Scottish restaurant. Ingram Wynd was 1/5 star short but it had amazing scenic décor and ambience and was located only a few blocks away. We decided to head back there for dinner. Goals accomplished we made the last final push to check out Glasgow Cathedral and we then were done for and ran back home in drenching rain.

Ghost Busters were on TV. We all dropped into the comfortable sofas and spent three hours glued to them emerging once only to replenish our food supplies. So much for the top Scottish. However I can confidently attest to the fast that we are not desensitized to the joys of relaxing on the on the sofa for hours to end.

Oct 26th. Liverpool

After going to sleep pretty late we needed some extra time in the morning to prepare for our week in Scotland. At last we packed up and got on our way.


Glasgow is 7 hour drive away from Kingston. We stopped halfway in Liverpool. Approach was somewhat grimy but it was surprisingly a very nice city to visit. It used to be a heavily industrial city but now it seems to be switching its focus to tourism.

There were beautiful red brick buildings all around. In general, this is one of the few cities that seems to have combined very harmoniously multiple building designs. Those red bricks somehow seem right in place next to boxy establishments made in the 70s and modern gleaming glass constructions. The center had a busy shopping street and a modern mall. We picked up our lunch from several international kiosks outside. The enormous grilled Polish kielbasa was hard to resist.

After lunch we went to the Albert Dock - superbly restored modern center containing a slew of free museums, Harris wheel and other attractions. We took a ride and enjoyed some lovely city views. Dan, Dima and kids played ping pong at the outdoor table. After that we went to the maritime museum.

It was  exceptionally well done. Lots of interesting and informative exhibits about the maritime industry. Georgia is learning about WWII in school this year. The museum presented a great coverage of the events from Liverpool perspective as ship building town. Finally, there was an exhibit of gay life on ships. It was done with a great deal of honesty and sensitivity.

During our ride on the Harris wheel we spotted an enormous Cathedral, seemingly in the center of the city. Since it was already late, we decided to drive up to it rather than walk. It was the right decision. Liverpool Cathedral is the third largest church in the world. It is actually some distance away from the center. It is not to miss of only of the size. The Cathedral was built over a 80 year period starting in 1900. The entire experience in Liverpool had made our day. The remaining half of the ride in the dark and through the rain seems to have lasted for too long but at least we arrived.

Ronnie from Principal Apartments had met us and guided us to the parking lot inside the building. The apartment is lovely. We were so happy to finish working through our food supplies from home and drop into the comfortable beds. Hurray!!

Oct 25th. Amsterdam

I left off in Amsterdam. We walked around after dinner. The streets were busy. We ended our walk at the large square. There was a carnival set up there. The sight of Harris wheel and a number of lift, rotate, and drop attractions were threatening the comfort of our dinners.

My room on the second floor, two stories further up the winding staircase on the attic occupying the entire floor was like the cavernous gates of hell. It was too big. I could not fall asleep for a while.

In the morning the cab took us down to the expo center. It was 8am on Friday and barely a person in sight. They must have been all waiting in an enormous line to get their iPnone 5S. It was launching in Amsterdam on the 25th. HRTech Amsterdam was much smaller and less showy than its US counterpart. We were done with our agendas in about 3 hours.

We headed back to town and continued walking around waiting for our afternoon flights/train rides. My colleagues, Paolo and Veronica, respectively from Italy and France were great to hang out with. We really liked Amsterdam. The city seemed to have infinite amount of and combinations of narrow alleys and wide streets crossing the canals. By 2pm the streets finally filled up. The weather was cool and comfortable.

By late afternoon I grabbed a cab to the airport. We passed the line for the iPhone again. The taxi driver lamented that so many people seem to have a computer/mobile addiction. To keep the conversation going I agreed and mentioned my brother's withdrawal symptoms whenever away from Facebook for more than three hours. The driver countered that Facebook is absolutely not the right example of dependency but rather a "valuable tool to stay in touch with family and friends a few times a day."  He whopped out his iPhone and started to type furiously. I bit my lip, my hands started to grope for the seatbelt, and I hoped that there won't be any cars around. In a little while he turned around and thrust his phone at me. "There how is this an addiction??" It was the carpark cartoon :)

The border patrol agent in Gatwick scanned only one of my fingers and did not pry too much - they much be getting used to our comings and goings.At last I was at home. was great to see everyone at home!! We said good night to kids and got out to have a couple of drinks to celebrate Dima's 38th birthday. We are happy and honored he chose to mark the occasion with us in the UK. The evening started out very nice. At night we got a hold of Dan R. and though he would not crack had correctly guessed the reason for the mandatory corporate training on Monday. That provided room for discussions late into the evening.

October 24th. Life in the fast lane

It was another busy week and before we plunge into an equally busy weekend, here are a few highlights.

Dima came on Monday. Hurray!! Then Dan's parents left on Tuesday. It was very sad. They've made a ton of farmer cheese pancakes and rice pilaf before they left. Kids are consuming the first one at enjoyable rate while lamenting that they are no longer here and asking when we can return back to US.

On Tuesday I went to the work conference in London. It was interesting to watch team members from all around the world show up - India, China, Spain, France. Very cool. Watching how a large global company builds commitment and motivation internally was a learning experience. The CEO is very charming and is liked universally. After the keynotes ended I went back home to get some work done. At night we had dinner @ Brown's downstairs. It was very relaxing and enjoyable.

On Wednesday I went back for some more networking activities and in the evening Dima and Dan came up and we walked around the evening London. Our first night out in London actually. We started with some beers at some local bar for the locals and them moved over to Great Queen Street restaurant for dinner.

This was the first time in many years on living in the English speaking country that we actually had to whip out our smartphones to look up what the items on the menu meant. Literally every other item. Of course in the past it was not smartphones but the dictionary but you get the idea. Really interesting English food. Way better than roast on Sunday. After getting loaded on the dictionary words and some dishes, we rolled outside and continued our walk toward some good desert. On the way we accidentally stumbled into China town. Interestingly the streets were filled with gypsy women selling flowers. We walked upstairs into Candy Café and discovered that it was serving traditional Asian sweets. As we were craving something heavier we got out and kept going eventually finishing our explorations back at the hotel.

On Thursday I went back to the conference while Dan and Dima worked in London until lunch and then went home for their calls. After lunch a couple of co-workers and I boarded a plane at the city airport and went to Amsterdam for a tradeshow. The ride into town on the taxi took longer than the flight. We are staying at Dikker en Thijs Fenice Hotel. It was pretty funny about our rooms. Our room numbers range from 200s to 400s. The reception clerk told us that our rooms are on the second floor. Hmm, elevator does go to the second floor but then you have to go through the maze of corridors and climb a winding staircase (love those) up another 2 stories. My room seems to occupy the entire building attic. Just a huge space with a humble bed and a TV. My co-workers said they got the same. For dinner we've stayed at the hotel restaurant. Highly recommended. Equally great as last night's place.

Tomorrow we are going to the trade show and then heading back to our homes in the afternoon. On Saturday we are going to Scotland to work from there for a week. It feels like we are changing gears all the time. It is very enjoyable but I hope it will not desensitize us to the joys of just sitting at home one weekend and watching TV while doing absolutely nothing else.

October 21st. London, London, Canterbury

Trying to catch up real quick. The weeks are speeding by as we enjoy the company of our guests and cultural and work related program.

After we came back from Paris, Dan left for Brussels office for three days. At the same time Dan's mom's friend came over from Vilnius to visit. It was great having t. Liuda. Kids loved her. At home we worked on catching up with kids' homework.

On Thursday we worked from a coffee shop in London. What a great way to view the city - sitting in a coffee shop and watching the people go by.
London crowd is truly one of the "smartest dressed."

For lunch we went to the British museum to check out the mummies. They have a pretty intense collection. I had no idea of the many mummification style. Images are really incredible. It would be good to come back with Georgia. May be a bit to graphic for Isabella though.

Highly recommend the chain Kimchee for lunch - beautiful as well as tasty and light.

At night we went to Rose Theater downstairs to see Oedipussy, a modern irrelevant side-splitting remake of a classic Greek tragedy complete with infanticide, incest and full frontal nudity. Not only was it incredibly funny, a few drunk locals sitting next to us provided additional dose of humor by breaking into thunderous bouts of laughter regardless of what was going on on stage. So far Rose Theater was so good I am starting to fear for that one bad show that will restore the normal order of things in the universe.

Finally on Friday, we went out for dinner to Sushi and Sticks in Wimbledon with Irina and Ricardo. It was really relaxing and we enjoyed spending time with them. The restaurant is somewhat reminiscent of Ruby Foos in NY. Maybe not as tasty but definitely a great place to go to with friends.

But wait, there was also Saturday. Georgia waited so long for this day. Every day she would wake up and complain that today is still not Saturday or Sunday.

Dan's parents and kids and I joined Dan at an outdoor market neat the Waterloo station for lunch. Then Dan's parents went to an art gallery and we tried to go to Regents' park. I've been trying to go there for some time. Unfortunately this Saturday was not meant to be. As soon as we got to Baker street it started to pour. We sought refuge at the Sherlock Holmes museum but it too was closed because it lost power. So we headed back and went to the Museum of Science instead.

Dan and Georgia took their own route, Isabella and I took it slow - working our way through the third floor coffee shop. This museum is really great for kids aged 6-7+ but does not do much for the little ones. Isabella enjoyed looking at the planes in the third floor. Georgia and Dan went to a really cool exhibit/experiment run by the college of London. They are trying to evaluate how learning works in kids by teaching them the "Alien" language. Georgia did very well both from the visual and auditory learning. Got two stars. Was very very pleased.

As we were in the French quarter we did a run through the nearby bakeries collecting each person's preferred choice of sweets. I have GREAT news for the lovers of real brioche and merengue. I think the same exact bakery where Georgia and I get our fix is opening in NYC. Now that's a blessing :)

Finally finally, on Sunday.. it was Isabella's birthday. We gathered all her gifts near the bed and handed them out to her one by one when she woke up. She was very happy. Georgia got her a large kitty, we got her magnetic doll, hairbands and a little backpack, and Dan's parents got her a Lego set and a pretty dress.

It was raining but we headed out to Canterbury anyway hoping for the best. And fortunately the weather was good over there. It is a very beautiful town. We walked for a long while around the ill-famous Canterbury cathedral. They had services going on so we could not get in to see some parts. The old center has fascinating buildings. They are not picture-consistently-perfect like some of the old German towns but each one looks pretty different and unique.

We had traditional Sunday roast for lunch at Millers Arms pub. We've been here since July 3rd so it's nice to finally pay homage to the local customs. I still fancy (:)) Korean, Japanese and Indian better but this one was very enjoyable.


When we got home we got a lot of calls from friends and relatives congratulating Isabella. At night we got 4 candles on one of the mini-cakes from Patisserie Valerie and sang Isabella a happy birthday song. She really liked that and asked us to do it a few more times. It was a very nice :)

October 14th. Praise the lord

Today was Columbus day in US. But here in the UK, Georgia's school had a harvest celebration. It  seems to have resembled Thanksgiving in some way. Kids were asked to bring canned foods for the soup kitchen to school. Parents gathered around the assembly hall and kids were brought in.

The principal said a little speech about how lucky we are that if we go hungry it is by our choice. She also said something to the effect of not wasting water or electricity but that part did not sound as convincing. And then kids in different classes made presentations of songs or skits that dealt with topics that ranged from reducing the waste to thanking the lord. I've never seen anything like that and it struck me like something that would be said at an orphanage or something from Mark Twain's writings. Something about the whole that that just did not have a right feel to it and I cannot really explain what. It was all good things though. Then they've asked for everyone to bow their head and the priest said a prayer.


Georgia the William Tell

If I can offer any advice on the waste it would be to tell stores to stop pushing 2 or 3 items that people do not need to them. They buy, consume, get fat and go buy some more. I wrote about it before.

Dan suggested to send Georgia to Chinese school next for full coverage. They don't call it Confucius for nothing.

I guess no turkeys were wasted so it is a good thing.   

October 13th. To Paris and back..

Just came back from a very nice weekend in Paris. Just Dan and I. Kids were at home with Dan's parents. Party time :)

This was probably our fourth visit. We were always immune to the charms of the city every other Russian seems to fall for. There is an expression "To see Paris and die" that somewhat expresses the religious fervor of our former compatriots. Having done our tourist round years ago, our more recent trips were just re-visiting the top sites and not particularly memorable.

This time around we did not have much of the plan either but just walked miles and miles around the city. It is still not die-worthy but it is a great city with countless places to discover. Would be nice to spend three summer months here. We found "Highland park" near our hotel, and walked the  lovely streets of the island behind the Notre Dame, passed the Eiffel tower, saw little China, and visited the Pantheon. Pantheon was always closed for whatever reason and we always wanted to see what's inside. Well, unless you speak French and/or know all the famous dead French people by heart, it is probably not that interesting of a place.

On a more interesting side, we got to see a girl fight and subsequent arrest. And then when we were eating Kurde sandwiches at a tiny place within the ancient wall, a crowd of young people came in. One of them offered to show a trick in exchange of a free meal. He showed a trick with a disappearing cigarette. Everyone laughed and he was rewarded with a meal for a euro.

En masse, men and women seem to be slimmer and more interesting and diverse looking, while their London counterparts win out by the "smartness" of their attire but lose out on the scale category.

Speaking of the scale, during our first visit when we were backpacking Europe our most memorable meal was having baguette sandwich by Seine river. We got all the ingredients at the local stores: cheese, salami, bread. It was amazing. Since then, we have not had a decent meal during our visits. My parents who were here a few weeks earlier did not have any luck either. So we decided to relive the old experience and subsisted on sandwiches, baguettes, croissants, and tartlets. Not complaining :)

At one moment we decided to hop into Moroccan restaurant. The waiter saw us, made a dour face, waited for a few moments for us go away and then grudgingly started to seat us down. We covered under his disapproving stare and decided that he's suffered enough and went back to our street fare.

On Friday evening we wandered up to Sacred Heart church. In addition to the views, there was a food and wine festival. It was really really cool. We went there on Saturday night as well hoping to catch a bit more excitement. But so had just about every Parisian. And so we just kept walking.

We contemplated Lido but then thought better and saw Machete Kills instead on Champs-Ulysses. The casting choices were superb and screenplay did not disappoint. What a perfect way to end a weekend! 

October 10. Reality sets in

It is really not that bad... Last weekend started very nice. I came back to US to spend several days in Florida with girlfriends. Those next few days were a heavenly yet lighting fast blur of relaxing on the beach, having some champagne while analyzing a ladies magazine, and walking around Miami dressed to kill and succeeding. Dan's desperate Skype: "Homework is down the sh9tter, kids stuffing themselves with junk food and watching cartoons, please come back home" sent me back to earth and the UK :).


Things were really not that bad at home: kids were doing their homework and were actually doing a pretty good job with it as well. The weather was starting to cool down but as it were we are having it obnoxiously good with barely a few rains in the last three months. Our landlord has restored the hot water. And the work was inspirational as usual.

 I guess it just came down to a few yak instances with service people and services. As I mentioned a few months ago our TV freezes every couple of minutes. After a long series of phone calls with the support we finally established that it is hopeless and we need a technician to come over. Technician never showed up. Today I decided to try calling customer support line again. The lady on the other end screamed at me for not warning them sooner that technician did not show up. Seriously. I've tried to explain that I did send them the text about it when it happened. And this is somewhat their problem that their people do not show up to work and there is no follow up. Eventually we agreed to try to send another technician over. I've spent the next hour waiting on the phone. She was mostly silent. Every now and then I would ask what she was working on. And she would reply that she is trying to schedule an appointment. And so I kept on waiting. It may be just me but that phone call had a slightly S&M character to it. And I did not like the M part so much.

To celebrate the upcoming restoration of TV I went out for a run during lunch. Polar watch showed dying battery. I replaced it just a few weeks ago with the key-watch repair guy at the market shop. I've been to that place a number of times to make spare keys, get shoe wax, and most recently to replace the batteries. So I went there and  asked him what happened. He said he's never seen me before in his life. When I reminded him that he told me about his 3 year old kid and a few other things his face showed recognition but he kept denying ever seeing me. He was very rude and kept ignoring me and talking with other customers. Eventually after everyone left, he opened up the watch and said that they don't even stock my brand of batteries. After he closed it up it was solid dead. Very sad. The business in question is Thimpson. I still need to hop in and get the name of the fine specimen of humanity. In case anyone else wants him to replace their dead Polar batteries.

There were a few other minor incidents like Starbucks barista trying to convince Dan than half and half diluted with water is how they make skim milk. Or ATM locking up yet another time and charging our card in the meanwhile. These things are not particular to the UK. And they will always happen. The important thing is that as long as there are friends to spend great time with those things are really not a big deal.